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2 2 About this Guide ABOUT THIS GUIDE This User Guide is a reference for the Rays plug-in made for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop Elements and Apple Aperture. You can read from start to finish or just jump around as you please. Copyright No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, for any purpose without the express written consent of Digital Film Tools. Copyright Digital Film Tools, LLC All Rights Reserved March 22, 2011 About Us Digital Film Tools brings together the unbeatable combination of superior software designers, motion picture visual effects veterans, video editors and photographers. Add three Emmy Awards and experience in creating visual effects for hundreds of feature films, commercials and television shows and you have a recipe for success. The understanding of photography, film and video editing, and in particular visual effects, allows us to design productive and highly specialized software. Software that is useful as well as easy to use. Our products stand up to the rigors of production and are the culmination of many years of experience. Our philosophy is to bring our visual effects tools and techniques to the masses. What was once found only in expensive high-end packages or existed as proprietary in-house tools, is now available to photographers, artists, designers, and video/film editors. Did I mention affordable? Our software doesn't cost an arm and a leg and won't break the bank.

3 On-Line Help Navigation Previous / Next Click on the Previous or Next icons to navigate through the help topics. About this Guide 3 Show Navigation To display the Table of Contents, click on the Show Navigation icon at the top left of the screen. Books Click on a closed book to expand the topic.

4 4 About this Guide Search Click the Search tab, type in some text and click Go! to find what you are looking for. Blue Text If you place your cursor over any text that is highlighted blue, it will turn into a hand. Click on the blue, hyperlinked text and it will navigate you to that portion of the manual. Print Click on the Print icon to print the currently displayed topic.

5 INSTALLATION Installation 5 Still Image Plug-ins 1 Download Rays at 2 Double-click on the file that was downloaded and run through the installation process. 3 When prompted, select the destination programs to install to. You can choose from Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Lightroom and Aperture. 4 Start your program and load or select an image. 5 Apply Rays: Photoshop/Elements: In the Filter menu, select Rays v1.0 from the Digital Film Tools group. Lightroom: In the Photo menu, select Edit In and then choose Edit in Rays. Aperture: In the Photos menu, select Edit with Plug-in and then choose Edit in DFT Rays v1.0. A dialog box pops up when you run Rays. 6 If you purchased the software, select Activate Rays and follow the instructions. or 7 Select Request Trial Activation (Internet Required) and click Next to receive a fully functioning version of Rays for the specified trial period. At the end of the trial period, Rays reverts to a limited demo mode. or 8 Select Run in Demo Mode and click Finish. Note: In Demo Mode, a watermark is superimposed over the image.

6 6 Installation Adding Rays to Lightroom as an External Editor If Lightroom is found during the installation of Rays, Rays will automatically be added as an external editor. If for some reason Rays does not show up as an external editor, you can manually add Rays as an external editor by following the steps below. 1 Open the Preferences in Lightroom. 2 Click the External Editing tab. 3 In the Additional External Editor section, select TIFF for File Format, srgb for Color Space, 8 or 16 bits/component for Bit Depth, set the desired Resolution, and choose None for Compression. Note: Rays is only compatible with TIFF files (8 or 16-bit, with no compression). 4 Click on Choose to select an application. Navigate to the location of Rays. On Windows, the default installation location for Rays will be: C:\Program Files\Digital Film Tools\Rays v1.0 On Macintosh, the default installation location for Rays will be: /Macintosh HD/Applications/Digital Film Tools/Rays v1.0 5 Select the Rays file and click Choose. 6 Under the Preset drop-down menu, select Save Current Settings as New Preset and name the preset Rays v1.0. Rays can now be easily accessed under the Photo menu as a preset external editor.

7 UNINSTALLING Uninstalling 7 Windows From the Windows Start Menu, select Programs > Digital Film Tools > Rays v1.0 > Uninstall Rays. Macintosh Go to Applications/Digital Film Tools/Rays v1.0 and double-click on Uninstall Rays.

8 8 Activating, Deactivating and Transferring ACTIVATING, DEACTIVATING AND TRANSFERRING LICENSES Activation Internet Activate (Recommended) Activates Rays over the Internet. Request License from Self-Service Website If you do not have an Internet Connection on the computer where you want to run Rays, use this option. The self-service website will generate a license file which you can then transfer to the desired computer. Install a License File Loads a license file obtained from the self-service website or received by . Note: If you experience an error when using Internet Activate, it is because you or your company uses a proxy server to access the Internet and/or your firewall is blocking our program s access to the Internet. For proxy server users, select Advanced Options and enter the appropriate proxy server settings. For firewall users, open your firewall software and allow our software to access the Internet. Deactivation Once Rays has been activated, you can access the deactivation option by selecting the License menu. Internet Deactivate Deactivates Rays over the Internet and is only available if you initially activated over the Internet. Use this method to return your Product Code back to the activation server. You will then be able to use your Product Code to activate Rays on another computer.

9 License Transfer Activating, Deactivating and Transferring Licenses 9 Your Product Code allows you to run Rays on one computer at a time. However, you may transfer the license by deactivating on one computer and activating on another. Internet Deactivate / Internet Activate is the preferred method of license transfer between computers, but is only available if you initially activated over the Internet and currently have Internet access. If you do not have Internet access, you will need to contact customer support to assist you in transferring the license. To transfer a license: 1 Select License from the Help menu. 2 Choose Internet Deactivate and click Next. Rays is now deactivated. 3 On the target computer, select Activate Rays and follow the instructions. Rays will then activate on the new computer.

Since the rays are only added to highlight areas, they have the effect of passing through objects and add a third dimensional quality.

10 10 Rays RAYS Description Create stunning and realistic light ray effects quickly and easily. Known as volumetric lighting in computer graphics or crepuscular rays in atmospheric optics, this dramatic effect adds polish and style. Since the rays are only added to highlight areas, they have the effect of passing through objects and add a third dimensional quality. Add shafts of light streaming through clouds, rays filtering through a forest canopy, beams of light on a foggy night or rays shooting out from text. Rays adds a striking and dramatic quality to any image. Before After Features Copyright Brand X Design Set the ray length and brightness Control ray direction with an on-screen control Customize the color of the rays using a color picker Threshold control to specify where the rays will be visible Randomize the rays Modify settings with sliders Integrated Help

11 TUTORIALS Tutorials 11 Rays Create stunning and realistic light ray effects quickly and easily. 1 Apply Rays. Photoshop/Elements: In the Filter menu, select Rays v1.0 from the Digital Film Tools filter group. Lightroom: In the Photo menu, select Edit In and the choose Edit in Rays. Aperture: In the Photos menu, select Edit with Plug-in and the choose Edit in DFT Rays v Move the point control in the center of the screen to change the source point from which the rays will emanate. 3 Adjust the Rays > Length, Color > Brightness and Color as desired. 4 To limit the amount of rays, increase the Rays > Threshold parameter. Threshold controls the amount of rays based on a brightness threshold. Fewer rays with more definition are generated at higher threshold values. 5 Use the Shimmer > Amount and Phase to randomize the rays. 6 Click the Done button to apply the filter to your image. See the Rays Controls for more information.

12 User Interface USER INTERFACE Rays is comprised of 2 main components: Viewer and Parameters. Viewer Parameters Viewer The Viewer is where images are viewed, edited and manipulated.

12 12 User Interface USER INTERFACE Rays is comprised of 2 main components: Viewer and Parameters. Viewer Parameters Viewer The Viewer is where images are viewed, edited and manipulated. Note: Rays works at a maximum resolution of 1024 by 1024 pixels in the user interface. Never fear, when your image is saved, Rays always processes at the resolution of the original image.

13 Parameters The Parameters window displays the available controls. Adjusting the parameters will update and change the image in the Viewer. User Interface 13 Windows Sashes The Rays interface contains multiple windows. Windows can be closed or torn off to be floating windows. Opening and closing windows: Double-click on the Parameters title bar to make it a floating window. A floating window can be re-docked by double-clicking it s title bar. Click the Close (X) icon to close a window. Once a window has been closed, it can be reopened by selecting it from the View > Window menu. By clicking and dragging the sashes, dividing lines between areas of the screen, you can customize the Rays interface.

14 14 User Interface Tool Tips Hovering the cursor over an icon or filter thumbnail will pop up a tool tip displaying its function. Size Window Change the size of the Rays window by dragging the bottom right corner.

15 TOOLBAR Toolbar 15 Done Applies all Rays adjustments to your full resolution image. Cancel Closes Rays without applying it. Reset Resets Rays back to it s default settings.

16 Parameters PARAMETERS The Parameters window displays adjustable parameters. Adjusting the parameters will update and change the image in the Viewer. Controls Rays Length Sets the ray length.

16 16 Parameters PARAMETERS The Parameters window displays adjustable parameters. Adjusting the parameters will update and change the image in the Viewer. Controls Rays Length Sets the ray length. Threshold Controls the amount of rays based on a brightness threshold. Fewer rays with more definition are generated at higher threshold values. Position Move the point control in the center of the screen to change the source point from which the rays will emanate.

17 Color Brightness Sets the brightness of the rays. Color Sets the color of the rays. Shimmer Randomizes the rays. Amount Sets the amount of shimmering. Phase Sets the randomness of the shimmering. Opacity Rays Sets the opacity of the rays. Source Sets the opacity of your image. Parameters 17 Go to the Rays Tutorial to see how the filter works.

18 18 Viewer VIEWER The Viewer is where images are viewed, edited and manipulated. Zoom In (I) Zooms into the image.

19 Zoom Level Displays the zoom level as a percentage. Viewer 19 Zoom Out (O) Zooms the image out. Zoom to Fit (F) Fits the image to the Rays window. Zoom Region Select the Zoom Region icon and drag select a square region in the Viewer to zoom in on that area. Pan (Space Bar-drag) Pans the image when the Viewer is zoomed in. Note: Panning is only available when a portion of the image is cut off by the Viewer window. See the Viewer Keyboard Shortcuts for more zooming and panning options.

20 20 Viewer Side-by-Side Comparison Compares the before and after image side by side in the Viewer.

21 Vertical Split Comparison Compares the before and after image using a Vertical Split. Move your cursor into the image area over the split line and when the cursor changes to a doublearrow, click and drag to move the split line. Viewer 21

22 22 Viewer Horizontal Split Comparison Compares the before and after image using a Horizontal Split. Move your cursor into the image area over the split line and when the cursor changes to a double-arrow, click and drag to move the split line.

23 A/B Comparison Click and hold the A/B Comparison icon to see the original image without the filter applied. Viewer 23 Viewer Keyboard Shortcuts Shortcut Space Bar-drag I Key O Key Scroll wheel over image F Action Pans the image Zooms the image in Zooms the image out Zooms the image in and out Fits the image to the window

24 24 Keyboard Shortcuts KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS Help Keyboard Shortcuts Shortcut F1 Action Opens Rays Help Zoom/Pan Keyboard Shortcuts Shortcut Space Bar-drag I Key O Key Scroll wheel over image F Action Pans the image Zooms the image in Zooms the image out Zooms the image in and out Fits the image to the window

2 Copyright COPYRIGHT

2 Copyright COPYRIGHT No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, for any purpose without the